Ethereum Ratio Takes 8

It’s ratio has risen to the highest level in four years, crossing 0.08 bitcoin per eth for the first time since early 2018.

That may be in part because traders say the eth/btc chart looks hot, but it may also be because the defi and NFT space in ethereum is making it more attractive.

ETH/BTC ratio, Nov 2021

Bloomberg columnist Joe Weisenthal for example details how mainstream pundits are capitulating. He says:

“Will Wilkinson wrote: ‘I regret to inform you that it’s totally legit and crypto/blockchain networks really might be technologically, economically, and politically transformative. Ugh.’ Things like DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) and crypto-based games have prompted him to admit that the space actually matters.

Prior to Will’s piece, Adam Davidson (the creator of the NPR hit podcast ‘Planet Money’) wrote a post titled: ‘From contemptuous to indifferent to curious to pretty damn excited: my journey to web3…’

There’s something important here, though, which is that for this new wave of converts — and they are converts — Bitcoin specifically offers them very little. There isn’t much gaming or DAOs or metaverse stuff being built on the Bitcoin network. There’s some, but most of it is happening on chains like Ethereum, which currently offer more expressive smart contracts.”

Bitcoin is also rising however, crossing $59,000, and that’s probably because it does have something to offer, though of a different sort.

“The developers of bitcoin were definitely thinking about the exact things that happened here … about corrupt institutions with bad monetary and fiscal policies leading to the debasement of currencies,” said cryptocurrency user Jad.

The 34-year-old music producer based in Beirut noted he bought cryptocurrency with most of his savings, stating: “Personally, I’m in it for the revolution… I can be the custodian of my money and have it in my pocket on my phone.”

So reports Reuters on the crypto revolution going on in Lebanon. Like the Chinese, their entry point is also USDt.

Tether has minted another $1 billion since Saturday, rising to a market cap of $73.4 billion as its stable value makes it an attractive entry point prior to the funds being invested.

Bitcoin is still better known and so often the first entry point, but with NFTs especially ethereum is attracting a different sort of crowd and in the process it is bridging the divide while also bringing down perception barriers.

Eth is usually seen more as a technology first. Some people seethe at bitcoin because it’s a checkmate of sorts (in that it gives choice) in a more than a century long battle over what is money.

The propagandists have gotten so desperate they’ve reduced themselves to the point of suggesting Russia, Chyna manipulate bitcoin and yadayada bad coin. But nothing sticks, except maybe in some corners like the far left.

Ethereum used to be bundled with all that. It’s just a new bitcoin, is what did stick for eth in 2017. But the crypto has always had a different culture in a division of labour of sorts.

Bitcoin has always been a gathering of two crowds. The techies, that marveled at its engineering, and what used to be predominantly ancaps, who have now ‘upgraded’ to libertarians and we are trying to upgrade them further by re-taking that stolen label of liberal to mean classic liberals. Free markets, free personal choices or both socially and economically liberal, with those currently described as liberals turned into lefties as it is a better description.

Both the techies and the liberals as we’ll call them, depended and still do depend on each other. While previously they were in one coin and still are, simplistically one can narrate that the ‘spirit’ is now in bitcoin while eth is more the tech side.

So when those artists or leftis as they may be see something like eth, yeah there’s the bitcoin yadayada stuff, but there’s also the technology and they very much like the technology.

It may be in the interest of some to take that further and say eth, not bitcoin. But we have learned our lesson. It’s not either or, it’s more which gains greater weight because they both sink with each other, or both rise but one maybe more than the other.

In our own terms, we call that ping pong. Sometime bitcoin attracts new markets, sometime eth does so and takes the show, both feed into each other, and in the end we get a: fuck the doomers, we’re the mooners.

Or there’s some stealth pricing in of L2 eth developments going on. That’s pure speculation but charts only tell what is, not why, why is the ratio gaining.

Information travels slowly because of time constrains and the efforts to gain such information, but it does travel. Faster to some, and more slowly to others.

Both Starknet and zkSync are on testnet. We haven’t tried them because first impressions matter and so we’d rather very impatiently patiently wait for them to first say wala. There are humans however building all these things and humans talk, so maybe the price is telling us something without telling us what exactly.

And so eth takes the show. To where, is to be seen but the currency appears to be gaining more confidence in potentially setting the tone.